Very few recreational women runners in Asia!

佐治男孩

It seems to me that there are very few recreational women runners in Asia.  In US, in the big competitions, very often, there are more women than men runners.  Even in smaller races, the ratio is still closed to 50/50.  It rarely goes below 60/40.  However, I just read an article about a Singapore race on the HK Runner Magazine.  The ratios of women runners were only 20% to 30% and the article gives me the impression that the ratios are very high already.  If that is true, I am just wondering why there are so few women runners in Asia?

cu83

Perhaps, this is related to the Asian culture where woman will spend more time taking care of her family after work.

lvrunner

In San Francisco for the past 5 years Nike Women's Marathon has been bringing women together from around the world. This is in fact the largest women's marathon. Runners who complete either the half or full marathon receive a Nike Women’s Marathon finishers necklace by Tiffany & Co.

佐治男孩

原帖由 lvrunner 於 2009-7-31 04:51 發表

                               
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In San Francisco for the past 5 years Nike Women's Marathon has been bringing women together from around the world. This is in fact the largest women's marathon. Runners who complete either the half o ...

There was an interesting story last year too.  Because the standard of the Nike Women's Marathon is not that high, runners who finish in more than 3 hours could still run as elites.  There was a gal from NY who never thought she could be considered an elite.  She registered as an ordinary runner.  Well, she ran a 2:56 or something like that on this pretty tough course.  The top "elite" runner finished in 3:06 or so.

Strictly speaking, the NY gal wasn't running the elite race and so she shouldn't be considered the champion officially.  However, this is a fun Marathon for women and it should have been handled more carefully by Nike and the organizer.

Nike's competitors wouldn't miss an opportunity to attack Nike, with some slogans like "Only for Nike, the faster runner is not the winner" or something like that.  Nike really messed it up.

In the end, Nike and the organizer declared this NY gal "a" winner after an uproar in the running community.  And the organizer decided to eliminate the elite division.  I can never understand how a 3:06 women runner can be considered elite any way.

lvrunner

原帖由 佐治男孩 於 2009-7-30 13:22 發表

                               
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There was an interesting story last year too.  Because the standard of the Nike Women's Marathon is not that high, runners who finish in more than 3 hours could still run as elites.  There was a g ...

I heard about that too, it was a joke!  And Nike didn't post the offical results in their website until more than a month later. Bad !!!

佐治男孩

原帖由 lvrunner 於 2009-7-31 05:32 發表

                               
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I heard about that too, it was a joke!  And Nike didn't post the offical results in their website until more than a month later. Bad !!!

Really bad publicity for Nike among the running community.

But I still like the Lunaracer and Nike Free shoes.  I also like the Nike techshirts when they are on sale.  I bought a long sleeve tech for under US$5 a couple of months ago

wongc

In HK, the female runner ratio is even lower than 20%.  I notice that in most races the ratio is only about 15% or less.  As a female runner myself, I also encounter the problems most female runners have:

-  balance between work, family and run (working mum in particular)
-  running under the sun is no good to the skin, running at night is dangerous......not much time left for training
-  running alone, especially in the countryside, is dangerous when men ususally have no issue

Reasons/Excuses?

Anyway, the 50% ratio in the US really surprised me!

Nike in HK only organizes one 10K race every year.  The 5000-7000 quota would usually be filled up in an afternoon (via internet)!

佐治男孩

原帖由 wongc 於 2009-7-31 12:25 發表

                               
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In HK, the female runner ratio is even lower than 20%.  I notice that in most races the ratio is only about 15% or less.  As a female runner myself, I also encounter the problems most female runners h ...

That's very true.  It is more dangerous for women to run alone, even in the US.  When I see a woman running by herself in early morning or late evening in a secluded trail, she usually runs with a big dog.  In HK, you probably would need to find a few friends to run together, which is not always very easy.

There are also several reasons why there are more women runners here in the US.  A big reason is that there are those charity running organizations and those charity runners are primarily women.  And also because of a law (title x or title xi?), all the universities have to spend similar amount of $ on collegiate varsity sports.  So, if they pay scholarships to get a man runner, they may have to do the same thing to have a women team.  So, women can get into some universities free of charge if they play sports well.

lvrunner

原帖由 佐治男孩 於 2009-7-31 08:12 發表

                               
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That's very true.  It is more dangerous for women to run alone, even in the US.  When I see a woman running by herself in early morning or late evening in a secluded trail, she usually runs with a big dog.  In HK, you probably would need to find a few friends to run together, which is not always very easy.
There are also several reasons why there are more women runners here in the US.  A big reason is that there are those charity running organizations and those charity runners are primarily women.  And also because of a law (title x or title xi?), all the universities have to spend similar amount of $ on collegiate varsity sports.  So, if they pay scholarships to get a man runner, they may have to do the same thing to have a women team.  So, women can get into some universities free of charge if they play sports well.

TNT~ Team In Training is a good example.  When I did the RnR San Diego Marathon a few years back.  All I saw was sea of purple!

http://www.teamintraining.org/

佐治男孩

原帖由 lvrunner 於 2009-8-1 12:19 發表

                               
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TNT~ Team In Training is a good example.  When I did the RnR San Diego Marathon a few years back.  All I saw was sea of purple!

http://www.teamintraining.org/

Were you bothered by them?  On RW online, some runners said they were irritated by the TNT folks because they ran 4 people wide to block the whole course, they cut in line to use the bathroom, etc.  

I haven't been bothered much by them.  The races I ran here so far usually don't have that many TNT folks.  I haven't run the popular races much.

lvrunner

原帖由 佐治男孩 於 2009-8-1 05:14 發表

                               
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Were you bothered by them?  On RW online, some runners said they were irritated by the TNT folks because they ran 4 people wide to block the whole course, they cut in line to use the bathroom, etc ...

Not really, the TNT runners never bother me,  The ones that really get on my nerve are the Students Run LA kids at the LAM.  BTW, I have a TNT friend doing the Vineman full Ironman up in Sonoma now.

佐治男孩

原帖由 lvrunner 於 2009-8-2 00:59 發表

                               
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Not really, the TNT runners never bother me,  The ones that really get on my nerve are the Students Run LA kids at the LAM.  BTW, I have a TNT friend doing the Vineman full Ironman up in Sonoma now.

TNT and Ironman are probably a little rare.  So, wish your friend good luck!
My swimming is still a problem.  I always wanted to try a sprint triathlon.  Unfortunately, if I do swim 800m, I may have nothing left for the bike and the run

The gym in the office park where company is located has a swimming clinic during lunch time.  Too bad that my east coast colleague like to schedule conf calls during that time

lvrunner

原帖由 佐治男孩 於 2009-8-1 13:20 發表

                               
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TNT and Ironman are probably a little rare.  So, wish your friend good luck!
My swimming is still a problem.  I always wanted to try a sprint triathlon.  Unfortunately, if I do swim 800m, I may h ...

Oh come on George, you can do it.  The TNT dude doing the Ironman now is actually a member of this forum but he hasn't posted for quite awhile.  I just checked, he just finished his bike ride and is onto his 26.2 miles now, he should be finished by 9:30 tonight.

[ 本帖最後由 lvrunner 於 2009-8-1 14:04 編輯 ]

佐治男孩

原帖由 lvrunner 於 2009-8-2 06:02 發表

                               
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Oh come on George, you can do it.  The TNT dude doing the Ironman now is actually a member of this forum but he hasn't posted for quite awhile.  I just checked, he just finished his bike ride and is ...

Definitely not the ironman.  May be a sprint-tri.  Even that is not very likely unless I can improve my swimming significantly.

佐治男孩

By the way, I was told that in the recent Chicago RNR Half Marathon race, about 2/3 of the participants were women.  

And most amazing thing is that the race was won by a women who beat all the men runners.  Well, I guess that's not a fair race for the men since the women runner was Kara Goucher.  She is probably the top women Marathoner in US now that Deena Kastor may be over her prime.

kaevin

IM(bad)O  most HK girls care about being slim AND having 'pale/white' skin.
Running under the sun violates the 2nd point.And most of them do not like to exercise 'hard' and they do so just to stay slim. They would like to have the best effort/weight loss ratio.

minilover

Totally agree with Kaevin… girls in Asia, particularly in HK shy away from the sun.  They also worry about being muscular after playing sports (which is totally untrue). I enjoy outdoor activities a lot and do not have many girl friends around me who share the same passion.